New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-09-04
SUPPLEMENT-.
PAGES 9 TO IL.
A REVOLT AGAINST ZOLAISM.
NEW PLAY ELECihlC
LIGHTS IN THEATRES.

Tbere is a schism in the camp OF the natural
,s+e Five Of NJ Zolas leading disciples have
BROKEN away from him and sent protest TO Ne
EYcaron against the gross fOulness OF Laha'
h;s outcoming novel, which the most uncleah
iournaI in Europe, lie Gil Bias" is bringing
out. They say that he has mama 1or ni'h'
and that he thinks with flthiDess 70 replace
personal observation. NJ. lola has not yeC "n-
swered the schismatics, who accuse MN Oh no0
only having slept on the laurels ne won ny
Az Assommoir,n but of having gone to Medan
70 work the vein he then struck in lie ben
Public instead Of holding up the flag OF natural
Ism in journal founded by himself and his
naturalist disciples NJ. Zola's idea was to make
lots of money, and he has succeeded. He had TO
make his hay while the sun shone. If he had
devoted himself to clese observation he might
have done few masterpieces which restricted
number of readers would have admired. POS
terty would have placed him among the French
classics But he would not have caught the
taste of the market and become in ten years one
of the richest literary men, if not the rchest
Of the age
I remember how az Assommoir" came out
The late NJ Menier, of chocolate celebrity, was
aiming at playing political part. lie wanteo
TO change radically the incidence of taxation, 70
ret into Parliament in which he succeeded, ana
70 get up q movement against alcoholic drinks
which would be Of indirect advantage to his
business in chocolate-the greatest business OF the
kind in Europe. AS an extreme Radical vergihs
ON socialism this arch-mllhonatre patronized tne
naturalist school and asked M. Zoia to iurhisn
his on Menier's) Journal, lie Bien Pubic" WIN
4, serial novel. The novelist understood that II
he was not to teach there's nothing so good as
chocolate. he was to preach that alcohol is
and lied perdition and that IL
Is demoralizng the French workrnen as fast as II
can think IL Assommoir" the best thing
NJ lola ever wrote and 1t is less evolved from
his inner consciousness than the WORKS winch
followed it. the latter having been dashed on 10
meet the demand Of the book-market for the KIND
of wares he could supply. Certainly l. Assom-
moirn is less indecent or in bad sense Lolauo
than "Nana," "Germinal' or Land" But the
nnbnc were not used TO such plain speaking
circumstances poured In upon the editor OF NJ
Menier's journal, and the publication Of the WORK
In the serial form had to be suspended. M
Menier then gave up lie Bien Pubic" put was
one of the capitalists behind lie Noltalre, wnicn
was set up in the centenary OF Voitares ueath.
M. lola was asked to furnish the new Journai
with an another novel which NJ Menier deter
mined should be advertised as much as his own
chocolate ever was He believed that advertising
would swamp the bourgeois prejudices. And so
II did Mana" was trumpeted In every possible
manner as the forthcoming serial OF lie vol
taire.n Even the United States answered TO the
trumpetings, and the book in question was
translated there by a large stan OF CLERKS WIN
rapidity for which there was no precedent. Weh'
lie Voltaire" has discovered that NJ Zola mas
plunged too deep into nastiness and has decnhed
bringing out a work by him which was hrst 10
have seen the light of day in It's columns. Ii
saws that all he has ever before written is In co
harrison rose water and that had it come out
handkerchefs would have been at the noses Oh
all its readers.
NJ lola is delighted at the row. lie says peo-
ples used to truf1es have not palate Tor tfipe'
but that as the trufie-eaters are only the upper
ten. whereas the tripe-eaters are the lower hun
dreds Of thousands, he will prepare ViaIus
which the latter can not only stomach but relish
Steam and electricity have so profoundly and ut
ter,v changed the conditions Of individuals, classes
and nations that humanity has not yet had time
IN adapt itself to the change, and is In state Oh
neurosis and unbalancement Pranzini's adven-
lures are a proof that what used to be tenoef sen
timent is now erotic craze. France hneiahu'
America and German Frankfort have all cont1o-
uted beauties to the seragliO OF that muir
berer: q scraglo, by-tbe-by, which never
had local habitation or name Ihere
are women of high station, it is to be assumed
who send this beast hampers filled with the most
delicate meat and drink. DO you THINK saiu
N lola TO me, that their mothers or grand
,no,bors would have done this2 One must 60
bae, 10 Syria of the olden time TO find Eros SO
naterialized."
But III "Iandn the men and women who one
would say were pursued by Syrian gods ana eou-
desses Of animal love do not come within the d.
500 oo.noy NJ RAILWAYS and teIegrapbS ike
Pranzini and his globe-trotting ladies' one OF whom
is poinp broken hearted to make O tour In Nor
way and another Of whom has been making pill
pr,mage in behalf Of the murderer to Mont 81
Michel But to come back to M. lola, he His
village in the fat rich, corn-producing Beance
with erotomaniacs who are set In state OF ocs-
tal ferment by the arrival of some icwd men ana
women from Paris The five disciples VINO nave
protested against this excess OF Zolaism declare
that il is a libel on rural France and answers only
to very exceptional facts. The main chapters ol
the book are no more natural" than the faples oi
Florian or the pictorial falsites OF Boucher and
Vatican. At the end Of the vintage harvest there
Is good deal Of rough free love among those who
have been engaged in 1t. But the hay and wheat
harvests are not occasions for the animal that Is
In the human breast to be let out to run riot.
The harvesters, who up before daybreak and
work away unsheltered through the burning heat
Of the day, too tired to play the Part OF satyrS
and bacchantcs. M. lola writes himself down
city very often in this last and most scandal
causing novel. He knows nothing about agricul-
tural work. and although he talks so much Of the
smell Of freshly spread dung and dung-heapss J
could not tell cows litter frem guano. His chro-
nology is equally at fault. The action of his
work Is timed just two years previous TO the fall
Of the Empire. The peasants then were wallowing
In prosperity and the free-trade regime of the Cob
den-Chevaber treaty did not pinch them. Amer
lea was then very long way of and did not Sc
riously compete in the French markets with the
wheat Of the Beance The peasants there who
clamor for protection against American grain and
pork are fifteen years at least ahead OF the time In
which they are shown as living.
Sarah Rernhardt has onne To CanferefS. where